116 Ky. 53 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1903
Opinion of the court by
The appellant, Frederick D. Hussey, brought this' suit against the appellees, George W. Sargent, Ezekiel H. Sargent, Webster-P. Hussey, Emily P. Hussey, Sr., Fannie R. Hussey, Emily P. Hussey, Jr., Catherine P. Hussey, Mabel W. Hussey, Dorothy Hussey, and Sarah L. Hussey, for the purpose of obtaining a construction of certain clauses in the will of-his father, Daniel P. Hussey, who died on the 25th of July, 1883, at his domicile in the county of Hills-borough, in the State of New Hampshire, and whose will, subsequent to his death, was duly admitted to probate in the probate office of that county. He alleges that Daniel P. Hussey’s widow, the defendant Emily P. • Hussey, Sr., accepted the privision.of his will; that he was his only child and heir at law; that at the time of the death of Dan
The special questions which we are asked to determine, upon this appeal are: First, whether the principal, of the one-fifth of the estate, the income of which was directed to be accumulated for the benefit of the children of plaintiff in the sixth clause of the will, has been disposed of by'the will, or whether, as to this fund, testator died intestate.
In the joint and separate answer of the infant defendants, Emily P. Hussey, Jr., Catherine P. Hussey, Mabel W. Hussey and Dorothy Hussey, filed by their guardian ad litem, it is claimed that the trusts for accumulation in favor of his wards provided for in the sixth and eighth clauses of his will are valid and enforceable, and that it was the intention of the testator, Daniel P. Hussey, that these defendants or their children, should any of them die, leaving children, before the date of distribution, should under section 8 of his' will receive the principal as well as the accumulated income provided for in that section. He also alleges that his infant wards were intended by testator to be the residuary legatees of any portion of the estate’ not otherwise disposed of in his will, and makes his answer
It is contended in behalf of Frederick D. Hussey: First, that the provisions contained ■ in sections 6 and 8 of the will, for the accumulation of specific portions of the income for the benefit of his children, to be paid to them wrhen his daughter, Emily P. Hussey, Jr., reaches the age of thirty-five, or, if she should not live that long, at such date had she lived, are void, because in contravention of the law against perpetuities, and that, being void, he, as heir at law, inherits the fund'; second, that the testator has failed to dispose of the principal from which this income is derived, and that therefore, as heir at law, he is entitled to it
In' the first, second, third, fourth and fifth clauses of the will, testator makes certain special bequests about which there is no controversy. We copy the remaining clauses of the will, although only the sixth and eighth are directly involved in this litigation. They are as follows:
“Sixth. After deducting any payment of the legacies before named, I give and bequeath to my beloved wife two-fifths of the income of the remainder during her natural life, and to my said son, Frederick D., I give and bequeath a like sum to-wit: Two fifths of the income of said remainder; and from the remaining one fifth of said income I direct my executors to pay to my sister, Jane M. Little-field, an annual sum of five hundred dollars, to commence at my decease and payable semi-annually, and to be continued and payable during her natural life; the. balance of said one-fifth of said income shall be allowed to accumulate for the benefit of the children of my said son or their heirs, such accumulation and such income to. be equally divided and paid to and distributed among said children when Emily P. Hussey, daughter of Frederick D. Hussey, arrives a.t the age of thirty-five years if then living, or at that date when she would have been thirty-five years of age had she lived, being then deceased.
“Seventh. [He gives, at the death of his wife, $50,000 to the city of Nashua to establish a public library.]
“Eighth. If my said son shall survive my wife, he shall receive at her decease the sum of one hundred thousand dollars from my estate and shall continue to receive two-fifths of the income of the remainder, and any remainder income heretofore received by my said wife, shall, after*63 deducting such sums as to my said executors may seem reasonable and fitting for the support of the children of my said son, be allowed to accumulate for the benefit of said children conditioned as payments and diátribution as in the sixth clause of the will.
“Ninth. Should my said son die before my said wife, leaving no more than two children, I give and bequeath to my sister, Jane M. Littlefield, my brother’s widow, Sarah S. Hussey, and to my said half brothers, Ezekiel H. and George W. Sargent, if living, the further sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to each and all of such one surviving.
“Tenth. In case of the death of my said son before the death of my wife, leaving no children, I give and bequeath to my wife and her heirs one half part of the whole of the remainder of my estate; and the rest and remainder of said estate shall be divided into equal shares between those surviving of the following, to-wit, the widow of my son, my said sister, 'Jane M. Littlefield, my brother’s widow, Sarah S. Hussey, and said half-brothers, Ezekiel H. and George W. Sargent.
“Eleventh. If from any cause my wife should be dissatisfied with the foregoing provisions of this will relative to her share, and should elect to receive such share or distributive part as the statutes provide, waiving the provisions herein set forth, and in lieu of the same, then I order and direct that my said son shall receive one half of the income of the remainder of said estate -instead of two-fifths as set forth in section sixth. And I further order and direct that my said son shall receive on his arriving at the age of forty years the principal sum of which he shall have received the income as provided in the. preceding sections.
*64 “Twelfth. I hereby constitute and appoint Webster P. Hussey of sqid Nashua, and my said son, Frederick D. Hussey, executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking any and all former wills by me made, and I hereby authorize and empower my said executors to sell or ex-' change my estate when same shall be deemed best and advisable and for the interest of said estate by my said executors, but no such change shall be made in said estate except sanctioned by both of said executors; further directing that no bonds are or shall be required of them as such executors. I also. direct that all necessary expenses shall belpaid to said executors incurred in the execution of the provision of this will, but that said son shall receive1 no further • compensation for his services in the same. But I direct that said Webster P. Hussey shall receive in addition to such necessary expenses a sum not exceeding at any time (besides expenses) the sum of five hundred dollars per annum, and at no time shall said sum so received exceed two per cent, of the income of said property then in care and trust of said executors, and when such percentage on the income as aforesaid would be less than five hundred1 dollars, then he shall receive and be allowed such sum as would be two per cent, on said income, and such sums so allowed to Webster P. Hussey shall be in full settlement and compensation for his services while acting and serving' as such executor.
“In witness whereof I have hereto set my hand and seal this twenty-first day of June, 1883, and interlineations in section' seven and eight were made before signing.
“Daniel P. Hussey.
“Signed, sealed, published and declared . . . said Daniel Hussey as and for his . . . and testament in the presence of us, who at his request and in his presence and*65 in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as .witnesses thereto.
“Chas. W. Hoitt.
“Ira Gustine.
“Mark G. Wilson.”
That wills must be sustained, and the intention of the testator given effect by courts whenever it can be done without violating established rules of law or some public policy, is a truism so often repeated that it has become trite. But it expresses a rule which is applicable to the construction of every will when its validity or that of any part of it may be called in question. And when one undertakes to make a will it will be presumed that his purpose is to dispose of his entire .estate, and does not intend to die intestate or become/intestate after death. And courts are never disposed to put such construction upon a will as would be likely to lead to intestacy, and this inclination is most strong when it is a residue of personalty which is the subject of the bequest. See Maberley v. Strode, 3 Vesey, 456; Whitcomb v. Rodman, 28 L. R. A., 149, note: “And if the reading of the whole will produces a conviction that' testator must necessarily have intended an interest to be given, and which is not bequeathed by express and formal words, the court must supply the defect by implication. See Phelps v. Phelps, 143 Mass., 570 [10 N. E., 452].” So far as we are able to discover, there is nothing in any clause of this will which indicates an intention on the part of the testator that any part of his estate should under any circumstances be treated as intestate. After providing for the payment of certain specific bequests, he divides the entire remainder of his estate into five equal parts, and specifically disposes of each of these parts. In the sixth clause of
We will not consider the disposition made by testator in the sixth clause of the will of the remaining one-fifth of his estate. Out of the income of this one-fifth, testator directs that his executors shall pay his sister, Jane M. Littlefield, annually during her life, $500, and that the balance of the income on this one-fifth shall be allowed to accumulate for the benefit of his grandchildren or their heirs,
.We will now proceed to the consideration of appellant’s second contention, that the provision directing the accumulation of income and its distribution to the grandchildren when Emily should arrive at the age of thirty-five years, or would have reached that age if living, violates the rule against perpetuities. Mr. Perry, in his work on Trusts (5th Ed., vol. 1, section 381), says that: “In determining whether a particular devise is contrary to the rule
It appears from the evidence that there is no statutory provision in New Hampshire against perpetuities, and that the common-law rule prevails there, except in so far as it has been modified by the decisions of the Supreme Court of that State. The common-law rule required that every interest disposed of by will should vest within a life or lives in being at the creation of the estate, and twenty-one years and ten months thereafter. See Blackstone’s Com., 174; 2 Minor’s Institutes, 376, 377. And it is clear that, tested by the restrictions of the common law, the devise in this1 clause to testator’s grandchildren is. void because it postpones the enjoyment of the income for a period of thirty-three years, Which is longer .than .the time allowed by the common-law rule. But the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, in 1891, in their-decision in Edgerly v. Barker, 66 N. H., 434, 31 Atl., 900, which is also reported in 28 L. R. A., 328, modified that rule of the common law' as to perpetuities in a very important particular. In that case the testator devised the remainder of his estate to trustees, who were to pay fixed sums to the testator’s two children for life, with remainder of the estate over to testator’s grandchildren, born and unborn, and to be paid to them when the youngest should arriva at forty years of age, and upon their giving bond to the children of the testator for the payment of the support provided for them in the will. At common law this restriction in the vesting of the estate would have ren
It is very earnestly insisted for the appellant that the difference between this case and the Edgerly case is so marked as to except it from the. rule announced in the Edgerly case. The basis of this contention is that in the Edgerly case the beneficiaries were known, and the limitation was only as to the time when the .estate should pass, whilst in this case the persons who are to take Can not be known until his grandchild Emily should arrive at the age of thirty-five, or would arrive at that age provided she is alive. And in support of this contention appellants have •taken the deposition of a distinguished lawyer and citizen of New' Hampshire, who, in answer to a request by appel
It seems quite plain that in Edgerly v. Barker the court put the period of distribution at the time when the youngest child then living became twenty-one years of age, so that there was a possibility in that case that other children might be born after that time who would be excluded. So, after all, it seems to us that it is impossible to distinguish on principle this case from that, and that, following the doctrine laid down in that case, the chancellor properly decided that the provision of the will directing the accumulation of the income was valid and enforceable for a period of twenty-one years after testator’s death, and should be carried out by the trustee, and that two-fifths of the income, to be accumulated under the eighth clause of the will after the death of testator’s widow, stands upon the same footing as the one-fifth directed to be accumulated under the sixth clause of the will, with the exception that the support for the children is to be deducted from the income derived from this interest, and that both funds go to the grandchildren in twenty-one years after the probation of the will of Daniel P. Hussey.
• The third ground relied on for a reversal is that the chancellor erred in requiring an accounting in this action by
Whole court sitting.
Petition for rehearing by appellant overruled.